On 21/05/2012 technogeekery wrote:>I think its a real pity, I love having an Australian to cheer for, and>he has so much potential still, he could rack up several more championships>yet. But it looks like he is really serious, and he is a very stubborn>guy. Honda (and maybe Dorna) will have to come up with something very>special to keep him.

It was a very interesting MotoGP year with plenty of unexpected twists as to how the placings went over the season.
I am sad to see Casey go, as he was certainly a principled rider. Although he was getting 9.3 million $ (only the top several riders earn around that figure), apparently Honda offered him 15.5 million to stay on another season, but he stuck with his word and has moved on.

I am stoked they named Casey Corner at Phillip Island circuit after him. How good was watching him two wheel drift under power (especially in super-slo-mo footage), at over 250 km/h on that bend?
Although his 'home' track he reckoned he got no more time there than anyone else, and his talent clearly shone through when the worlds best that he was up against would hit the same corner at 250, brake and exit it in the low 240's, while Casey was timed on one run exiting it at 259 kph!!!

Vale the true MotoGP bike with the end of this season, as the powers that be seem intent on forcing these riders to race on 'modified production bikes' from now on. How underpowered they are compared to the full GP bikes was evident when Lorenzo was lapping one in the last race and ended up coming off due to colliding with it at the time. Until technology improves a long way yet, we are unlikely to see anyone powerdrift one of them at those speeds on Casey Corner any time soon.

Talking about drifting. A NSW climbing mate recently bought a Triumph Tiger 800 xc nicely kitted out after finding his KLR 650 not up to the task of pillioning with gear. Picked it up new from Melbourne and reckons Casey is an amateur! He had fun keeping traction leaving Melbs unfamiliar roads on a drizzly day on new tyres...
I met him in Mansfield and showed him some dirt roads back to NSW to christen it. It was a good day and I wish I had taken a camera to catch the fantastic sunlit west/southwest escarpments of Mt Buffalo late arvo with dramatic rain clouds framing it. There is plenty of scope for new route climbing down that way still. I also had a chuckle after intermittent light rain caused the bulldust my bike raised from time to time to coat him and his new toy!

On 11/06/2009 dot wrote:>And further advice: Seek out mastery of the art of riding in the wet.>When you get to the stage where you're comfortable on the gas even though the front and rear are both loose as, you'll be in good stead!

This is a long shot as dot last logged in 27/03/2012 ...
~> I have had a bit of a look for this book and had no luck.

Do you (or anyone), happen to know who publishes it, ISBN, or any other details?

Just bought a Triumph Tiger 800xc myself. Sold an Mv Agusta Brutale to get it. The 800 Tiger is a back road weapon!! It can boogie with the best of em. As good as or better than the Cagiva Navigator i had ,that was a real back road (tar not dirt) secret weapon.
Surprise sporty bikes all day with that bike and Tigger is as good on the tar and better on the dirt. My friend is getting a Beemer 800 GS so it will be interesting to see how the kraut goes against the pom.
Agree we are going to miss Stoner (his riding not his personality) but Marc Marquez looks like he can hold his own on the big bikes. With Rossi back on the yammy it will be an interesting season.

On 28/11/2012 hangdog wrote:>Just bought a Triumph Tiger 800xc myself. Sold an Mv Agusta Brutale to>get it. The 800 Tiger is a back road weapon!! It can boogie with the best>of em. As good as or better than the Cagiva Navigator i had ,that was a>real back road (tar not dirt) secret weapon. >Surprise sporty bikes all day with that bike and Tigger is as good on>the tar and better on the dirt. My friend is getting a Beemer 800 GS so>it will be interesting to see how the kraut goes against the pom.

The Tiger xc is a tidy looking unit, and the reviews I've read of it are impressive. Sooner or later my mate will let me ride his, but being a KTM rider I have my pride and won't ask but will wait till he offers instead, heh, heh, heh. ;-)
It is good to see Triumph re-staking with the current release, it's own niche back in the hybrid dirt bike genre by going back to its true form, as I heard the previous Tiger wasn't the dirt bike that the model it superceded was (which I had ridden), so thought they were losing their way.

On the topic of losing their way, KTM are bringing out in 2013 a new Adventure 1190 bike.
V-twin, 212 kg, 150 bhp, 23 litre fuel tank...
When they released the Adventure 950 they nailed that market, then went slightly yuppie by upgrading to a 990. I have a 950 and have seriously ridden a 990 for a few days, but don't covet uptrading myself, let alone to an 1190.
My bike is 197 kg and heavy enough, and the extra few cubes in the newer model didn't seem noticable in any legal sense! In the dirt wheelspin is wheelspin, which wasn't hard to achieve before, so why promote it more easily?
I suppose they are trying to take market share from the beemer 1200's but to a dirt cognisor I think they have taken a retrograde step, and imagine the only real advantage over the beemer in that market is having a chain drive, to enable gearing it up or down more easily for one's intended riding terrain.

>Agree we are going to miss Stoner (his riding not his personality) but>Marc Marquez looks like he can hold his own on the big bikes. With Rossi>back on the yammy it will be an interesting season.

I think it will take Marquez a while to settle in, and wouldn't be surprised to see him crash out fairly often while he initially takes on more than he can easily chew.
I look forward to the Lorenzo vs Rossi championship points rivalry, and hope Pedrosa continues to keep them both honest!

>as I heard the previous Tiger wasn't the dirt bike that the model it superceded>was (which I had ridden), so thought they were losing their way.

I have ridden the previous Tiger ( the 1050) and its a very good road bike. A bit like a poor mans Multistrada without all the electrotrickery. >>>When they released the Adventure 950 they nailed that market, then went>slightly yuppie by upgrading to a 990. I have a 950 and have seriously>riden a 990 for a few days, but don't covet uptrading myself, let alone to>an 1190.
I am a big fan of the Kabooms They did a bike called the Super Enduro, I did look around for one but they were a bit pricey. All these adventure type bikes are heavy even the 800s. I wouldnt like to drop one on my leg anytime. :)

>I suppose they are trying to take market share from the beemer 1200's>but to a dirt cognisor I think they have taken a retrograde step, and imagine>the only real advantage over the beemer in that market is having a chain>drive, to enable gearing it up or down more easily for one's intended riding>terrain.

I think that all the riders who are likely to go into the dirt will go with the F800gs and the two up riders and backroad explorers will stay with the 1200. I think BMW will move the 1200 towards the Multistrada and 1090 Tiger. The new part water cooled 1200gs may not even have a wire wheel option so it looks like that is the way it will go. I spent a few weeks in the dolomites recently and 3 out 5 bikes were BMW 1200gs. They were like backsides everybody has one.>

... Have been wearing down the chicken strips of my tyres in Vic high country lately, and thought I'd post a warning to other m/cycling climbers about what the present heat-wave conditions have done to the roads up at Mt Buffalo (amongst other places).

As many of us already know, a hot day tends to melt the tar on the road, particularly the mixture that they use in the alps as it is biased towards holding up in cold weather conditions.

At the moment after several days around the 40+ degree mark in the valleys, the Buffalo road is the worst I have seen it for 'spooge-like' tar.

The obvious black slick spots are the usual pure tar-melt, but what is not as obvious is that the seemingly 'dry-line/s' through many patches, are also very soft.
~> Read very soft as in if one happens to walk on the road in those 'dry' spots you can see your footprints denting the surface left behind!
~> Read very soft as in having your bike on the sidestand (even parked in vicinity of the stone hut near the Chalet), is perilous, as after a half hour it will have sunk a couple of centimetres into the tar!
~> Read very soft as in following another motorcycle on the 'dry line/s', with road style tyres (as opposed to offroad tread pattern), on it; still being able to see it's track, like when following another in rain-wet conditions, but with tar-melt being flicked up not water!
... One tends to follow the line between the chopped up stuff created by the wheel tracks of the cages, but it is definitely not secure. Additionally, many corners have the whole road as a sheet of ooze; ... particularly interesting on the hairpins!

From the Catani campsite turnoff and beyond towards The Horn, authorities have spread much sand in places on the road (to assist traction / steerage for cages?), and this presents further m/cycle traction hazard...

Although I went fairly quickly up the hill, while avoiding the obvious bad stuff, once I became aware of the condition of the 'good' stuff, it resulted in probably my slowest ever trip down the hill...

I was glad I was not riding a treadly, given their skinny tyres! Heh, heh, heh.

Just passed my P's test today, so I'll check in. Ridden to the Ledge, ridden to Palm Beach boulders, feels good. Also, I only have a scooter, which I will have to upgrade, but that will wait until I get my green P's in twelve months.

I too have just qualified to write to this thread. Passed licence on Wednesday in the rain, rode my bike from Leeton to Canberra yesterday. Looking forward to riding around the Canberra hills. Spent a lot of time doing that on the back of Pat Butler's bike in the 80s.

On 5/03/2013 hero wrote:>I too have just qualified to write to this thread. Passed licence on Wednesday>in the rain, rode my bike from Leeton to Canberra yesterday. Looking forward>to riding around the Canberra hills. Spent a lot of time doing that on>the back of Pat Butler's bike in the 80s.>
Ahh good to see a closetnother rider coming out! ... and just in time for Canberra's sunny winter too. Heh, heh, heh.
~> Watch the roos round there, as they have a habit of playing with motorcyclists!
If you (or anyone else reading this), are into cold weather riding, the 44th Alpine Rally (Australia's oldest motorcycle rally), is coming up on Queens birthday long w/end in June at Yarrangobilly. That venue can be used as a base to recce Blue Water Holes adventure climbing at the same time too!

On 9/03/2013 brat wrote:>Don't know if I still qualify, just sold my buell here to buy a 135 Yamaha nuvo in Thailand, should be fun!

That is certainly a change brat. Why a Yamy instead of a pachyderm*?
;-)

Alpine Rally is coming up, if any half adventurous* motorcyclists are interested...

(*You can get there by tar which detracts from the adventure; but it may snow, which adds to the adventure! Heh, heh, heh.)

It is almost right next door to Blue Water Holes / Coolaman Gorge limestone cliffs, that are worth checking out from an adventure climbing perspective, though the road to that area involves 30 km (?) of dirt...